using zims to help prepare for your aza accreditation (2020)
TRANSCRIPT
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The ZIMS application can help make your accreditation process easier by helping you gather
information for your application and provide answers to questions during your site visit. Some of
the accreditation questions can be answered directly by downloading/printing information from
ZIMS in the form of reports or exports. ZIMS helps you easily gather information you will need
to answer questions in the requested format (narrative, provided form, etc).
To use this document:
• The various sections follow the flow in the AZA Application. Specific questions are
identified.
EXAMPLE: AC-7a How many animals at your institution are in on loan from other
institutions?
• Breadcrumbs show you how to get to the ZIMS screens
EXAMPLE: Start > Reports > Loan Report > Loan In
• Screen shots of the ZIMS Application show you what to look for.
EXAMPLE:
• The text boxes provide additional details
EXAMPLE:
Topics Covered
General Information
Animal Welfare, Care, Welfare & Management
Veterinary Care
Conservation
Scientific Advancement
Staff
Physical Facilities
Safety/Security
The On-Site Visit
This report will display what animals you physically hold at
your facility but do not also have legal ownership of.
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General Information GI-8 Provide your institution’s USDA Exhibitor License #
• Institution > My Institution > Permit grid
Back to Topics Covered
Animal Welfare, Care, Welfare & Management AC-3 Submit a copy of your Institutional Collection Plan (ICP)
• Enclosure icon > Enclosure Search > Details tab > Planned Taxa > Actions > Add New
All your permits and licenses can be recorded in ZIMS in the Institution module. Here we
quickly find the number for our USDA license. When you record a permit/license you have
the option to mark it Local or Global. If you mark it Global, other institutions can find it
using a Global Permit Report. This is very helpful when other institution’s permits need to be
referenced such as for your annual Captive Bred Wildlife report.
The Planned Taxa grids can help capture your collection plans for each exhibit. Within the
Enclosure module, every enclosure has a grid for recording species planned for it. For this
enclosure we are planning to add black swans in 2021, parma wallabies in 2022 and red-
necked wallabies in 2022.
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• Enclosure > Search > Planned Taxa
We had also planned to include red
kangaroos but found the area to be
inappropriate, so we marked it
Inactive with a note as to why we
changed our minds. This will help
later if someone wants to add red
kangaroos, we can reference an
earlier decision.
Or, you can use the Notes area to
capture why you wish to add a
species like this Note on the Parma
wallaby.
To search for your Planned Taxa go to the Enclosure module
and Planned Taxa Search. You can filter by specific
Taxonomy, Target Year and Active Plans.
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AC-7 Submit your institution’s most recent animal inventory in taxonomic order, including
scientific name and sex
• Start > Reports > Inventory Detail Report
The results grid will display the enclosure (hyperlink to Enclosure record), species
(hyperlinked to taxonomy record), sex ratios, year and if Active or not.
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AC-7a How many animals at your institution are in on loan from other institutions?
AC-7b How many animals at your institution are out on loan to other institutions?
• Start > Reports > Inventory Report > Check desired boxes
The Inventory Report is one of the most used reports in ZIMS. To answer this
question, you need to select Inventory Detail Report as it will include all animals
you physically hold and own, hold but do not own, and own but do not hold. You
can also export the report to different formats. This report can be submitted
directly as produced from ZIMS.
Having animals in-on-loan or out-on-loan often indicates a willingness of the
institution to cooperate with other facilities. It is very easy to obtain that
information by running an inventory report for only those animals.
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• Start > Reports > Loan Report
The totals are presented at the
bottom of the report with further
breakdown by Class.
You can also find this information
by running a Loan Report. The
disadvantage of this report is that
you will have to run two reports
(one for in on loan and one for out
on loan) but the advantage is that it
includes additional filters that can
be applied.
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AC-8 Which zoological records system does your institution use?
• ZIMS!
AC-8a What percentage of your institution’s animals are registered with that system?
• If not 100% explain why they are not recorded in ZIMS. Common examples include
feeder animals, invertebrates and corals.
AC-8c In which system are your institution’s holdings of CITES I, SSP and studbook species
registered (and include a list).
• Start > Reports > Inventory Detail Report > select CITES
You can run an Inventory report
for only those species listed by
CITES to help answer this
question. See question C-6 for how
to find your SSP species.
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• Start > Reports > Inventory Summary Report > Physical > Export for Raw Excel
AC-8d Is your institution currently participating in ZIMS/Other
• Check ZIMS!
AC-9 Submit details on your institution’s animal marking system utilized to correspond with
animal records.
• Animals > Animal Record > Details > Images or Identifiers grid
To find the studbook species you can export an Inventory Summary Report to Raw Excel
and compare it to the studbook species list on the AZA website. Remove any species that
do not have studbooks and adjust your columns to create the list.
In addition, in the Basic Info in
an animal record you can view
any studbooks associated with it.
ZIMS allows you to identify your
animals using many types of
identifiers. One popular feature
is the ability to add images to
the animal record. This is very
helpful for species that are
difficult to add tags or bands to
such as these poison dart frogs.
You can easily see which frog’s
record you are in. Images are
especially useful if keepers are
entering their own data as a
double check that they
are in the correct record.
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AC-10 Does the zoological records management system being used by your institution (see AC-
8 above) duplicate animal records?
• Select “No”
AC-11 If “no” to AC-10 above (or for animals not registered with your institution’s zoological
records management system), are animal records duplicated?
• Select “No” if all your animals are recorded in ZIMS
• Explanation for animals in ZIMS – The ZIMS database is hosted at a secure, offsite
facility. ZIMS data is backed-up at multiple physical locations and stored on a fault
tolerant, expandable storage area network, featuring RAID 5 disk array with hot
swappable spare drives. It is backed up on a daily basis with maximum care given to
protect the data in case of an emergency. Duplication is not required. For Technical,
Application and Collection security read ZIMS Security under the Start menu in ZIMS.
• Explanation for animals not in ZIMS – your call!
AC-14 Has a paid staff member been designated as being responsible for your institution’s
animal record-keeping system?
Images are also useful for larger
animals. This zebra has a
distinctive stripe pattern on its
rump.
There is also an Identifiers Grid to
track logical (intangible) identifiers
such as House Name and Studbook
Number and Physical identifiers
such as artificial tags, bands and
transponders or natural color
patterns or abnormalities.
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• Institution > My Institution > Staff > Search Form
AC-15 Are records current with up to date information?
.
• Start > Security Tools > Data Entry Monitor
• Institution > My Institution > Staff Statistics
ZIMS deploys with several template Roles that are kept updated as new
functionality becomes available. The Local Admin Role has access to
manage every aspect of ZIMS and is usually the person designated as being
responsible for your institution’s animal records. Using the search form in
your Staff grid, it is easy to search for anyone assigned this Role.
An advantage to ZIMS is that as soon as the record is Saved it is instantly
viewable by others both at your facility and at other institutions who have been
given access to that information. There is no waiting for data submission.
Using Data Entry Monitoring you can easily see what Staff have been in ZIMS and
if transactions (any bit of data) have been recorded
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AC-21 Submit a copy of your institution’s process for assessing animal welfare and wellness,
including a schedule of how often assessments are done.
• Start > Animals > Care and Welfare
Looking at Staff Transaction Statistics you have a quick view of ZIMS usage for the
last 30 days.
The Care and Welfare module makes answering this easy. You configure the Indicators you
want to use from five different categories – Behavior, Environment, Physical Health, Mental
Domain and Nutrition.
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You then assign what Value Type you want that Indicator to have – Numeric Value, Percentage,
Numeric Scale or Binary. You define your Values. In this example we have a scale of 1 – 3.
Then indicate your desired observation by checking the Expected Value.
Then create a Template using the desired Indicators. This is a Template for our penguins.
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AC-28 If your institution maintains elephants, submit a copy of your elephant behavior profiles
for the past 24-months
• Animal record > Note & Observation to record
• Start > Reports > Note Retrieval Report to retrieve
A printable and
downloadable Chart
is created for each
animal. There is also
a List View
available. For both
the Chart and the
List View you can
filter by specified
Indicators. If the
Global Indicators do
not have what you
need you can create
Local Indicators.
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AC-32 Submit a description of how cetaceans that participate (in a guest interaction program)
are trained
• Animal Search > Animal Training Definitions Search> Add New
• Animal Record > More Details > Training Information > Actions > Add New
Tracking behaviors can be easily
done using Notes and
Observations. You can then search
by all Individual Behaviors, or
even very specific ones, and create
a report on what has been noted for
each animal. This makes retrieving
behavior profiles over a time
period very easy. Above is the
recording screen. To the left is the
search screen with the various
filters. The Care and Welfare
module will also help you capture
this information.
The ZIMS Training grid allows
you to capture all the training
sessions and the animal’s response.
You first create a definition for the
behavior you are teaching.
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• Training Information > Sessions > Add New
AC-37a Do any animals in your institution spend time in a “touch pool” or “petting”
environment? If Yes, list all areas in which this occurs.
• Enclosure module>Tree View or Add New
You then assign the behavior to the
animal, including the purpose, the
status and the start date.
You will then add sessions for
training the behavior. The desired
behavior and the sessions can be
exported to Excel or pdf for a
complete picture of their training.
By setting up your Enclosure Tree to indicate these types of enclosure environments you can
easily identify them and track animals that may spend time in them. Here we have added
(public access) to the Enclosure name. By using the wild card search (*???*) you will get a
results grid that identifies the enclosures.
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AC-41 Provide a detailed description of how your institution maintains ambassador animals. If
they are housed separately from the rest of the animals describe their housing.
• Animals module > Animal Simple Search
Within each enclosure, selecting the Occupants tab will display what animals are currently
being held in the enclosure. If you want to search for animals previously occupying the
enclosure you can use the search form and select to Show Historical Records. You can
search by a parent enclosure and check the Include Sub Enclosure checkbox to include
occupants of all the child enclosures.
ZIMS allows you to put your animals into
various Collections. Collections identify the
main reason for having the animal at your
facility. We have created a Collection for our
Program Animals and placed the appropriate
animals into this Collection. We can search for
what animals have been assigned to a specific
Collection. If you include an Enclosure column
in the results grid you can easily see which
Enclosures hold animals used in programs.
Opening the Enclosure Details will provide a
description if you have completed the grids
available.
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AC-59 Submit a copy of your institution’s animal enrichment program
• Animal record > More Details tab > Enrichment
AC-61 Submit a copy of your institution’s animal training program
• Animal Search > Training Definitions Search
Although ZIMS does not provide an area to record your overall enrichment program, it does
help you track how you are following this program within the animal record. This may be
something to show the Inspection Team.
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AC-62 If your institution’s animal inventory includes marine mammals, aquatic or semi-aquatic
species, submit a detailed description of the water quality monitoring program that outlines
parameters tested, allowable tolerances, frequency of testing, methods of testing, and data
interpretation protocol for each major aquatic system
• Start > Tools > Measurement Range Template
Although ZIMS does not have a place to record your overall training program, you can track
how you are following the program. You can search for the various Trainings being given
using Animal Training Definition Search. Here we searched for who is getting the Auditory
Variables training. We find four animals receiving this training. The numbers are hyperlinked
to display a grid of the actual animals involved so you can go directly into their record from
the Animal ID hyperlink. This may also be something to show the Inspectors.
Simply taking water quality measurements is not enough to keep your aquatic animals
healthy. These measurements need to be within certain minimum and maximum ranges.
You can create a Measurement Range Template where you record the desired measurement
ranges for specific enclosures/tanks. We want our aluminum measurements to be no lower
than 0.07 and no higher than .32. We have assigned this range to both Tank Three and Tank
Four. These templates can help you answer most of this question.
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• Enclosure record > Details tab > Water Quality Measurements
• Start > Tools > Environmental Quality Graph
If a measurement is recorded that is outside this desired range, you are given a message that
notes the minimum and maximum measurement you desire. You can accept this if it is
correct or go back and correct it if you made a mistake.
In the enclosure record the out of range measurement is displayed in red. In addition,
you can select to have an Email message sent to the desired staff member if a
measurement is out of the desired range.
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AC-65 In the last five years, have any animals being shipped to or from your institution died or
been seriously injured in transport? If yes, submit a detailed explanation of each event, actions
taken during/after each event, changes made in procedure and/or policy as a result of each event.
• Start > Reports > Transaction Report > Advanced Filter
From within the Enclosure record you can graph single Measurement Types and print or
download the graphs. The graph lets you know if any measurements are outside your
desired range. Using the Environmental Quality Graph, you can compare multiple
measurements on multiple enclosures.
In the ZIMS Transaction report, using Advanced
Filters, you can select the appropriate date range
and Death in Transit. A Death in Transit means the
animal left your facility, but for some reason, not
caused by you, it died before reaching its
destination. These deaths are not counted as a death
against your institution. In reports the transaction
will display as it was originally intended (such as
Donation To or Loan Out To as shown below)
followed by (Death in Transit).
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Back to Topics Covered
Veterinary Care VC-5 Are the specific controlled narcotic drugs Carfentanil, M99 or M50-50 utilized by your
institution?
VC-7 Are other controlled substances utilized by your institution?
VC-8 Is there a program for regular disposal (or removal and separate storage) of outdated
drugs?
• Medical module > Pharmacy Inventory
For all animals that Died in Transit you should record details in Notes, using keywords of
“Death in Transit”. You can quickly retrieve this information using a Note Retrieval
report, selecting the appropriate date range and Keyword of “Death in Transit”. This will
help you answer this question.
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• Medical module > Pharmacy Inventory > Search
VC-9 Does your institution maintain complete medical records on all animals in the institution?
VC-14 Is a post-mortem (necropsy) performed on every individual animal mortality?
The Pharmacy Inventory can help answer
these questions. This Inventory allows
institutions to record their drugs and track
their usage and expiration dates. Whenever a
drug is recorded as being used in an animal
record, that amount is automatically deducted
from the remaining amount. If the drug is
regulated there is a checkbox to
indicate that it is a controlled substance.
You can search for your drugs using many different filters. Of special importance is the
ability to search for drugs that may be approaching their expiration date. The search results
grid will provide important information at a glance such as the Expiration Date, the
remaining amount and the drug Status.
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• Medical Module
Back to Topics Covered
Conservation C-6 List your institution’s involvement in all SSPs, TAGs, SAGs, Conservation Action
Partnerships (CAPs), Field Conservation Committees (FCCs), and other cooperative programs
with similar institutions
Animal record > More Details tab > Management Plan
The ZIMS Medical module allows you to capture all the medical care that your
animals receive. It is easy to search by animal or by specific record types such as
Clinical Notes, Samples, Test Results and Necropsies.
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• Animal module > Animal Advanced Search
Back to Topics Covered
Scientific Advancement
SA-1 Briefly describe how your institution participates in scientific study
Within each animal record there is a grid to record appropriate Management
Plans and the status of the specific animal within the Plan.
Using the Animal Advanced Search, we are searching for all the animals we have in our
collection that are listed as “red” SSPs.
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SA-8 Are the results of scientific studies published or otherwise disseminated to the professional
and scientific community?
Back to Topics Covered
Staff
S-2 Submit a list of all paid staff members and their titles. State full or part-time and include the
annual salary for full-time staff.
• Institution > My Institution > Staff
Just by contributing your data to Species360 you are participating in scientific advancement.
For example, the Demographic Species Knowledge Index is using global member data to
provide critical data missing for 98 percent of known terrestrial vertebrates. The Songbirds
Knowledge Index is helping to pinpoint songbird species most at risk.
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Back to Topics Covered
Physical Facilities PF-6 Submit a description of your institution’s maintenance program for exhibits, buildings,
grounds, and equipment.
• Enclosure Record > Details > Maintenance
You can record and track your staff from the Staff grid in My Institution. Adding
someone as a Staff member does not automatically give them access to ZIMS. It does
mean that they can be assigned to a Team or Department, used as a Responsible Party
or entered as an Observer. If they are marked as a Public Contact, their information
will be visible to other institutions.
You can export this Staff grid to Excel where it can be manipulated as desired, printed or
emailed. You can delete unnecessary columns and add ones for full/part time and annual
salary.
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PF-20 If your institution’s animal inventory includes aquatic or semi-aquatic species, submit a
detailed description of the operation of the water circulation system, life support systems and
water supply.
• Life Support module >Add New or Search
Every Enclosure record has a
maintenance grid where routine
and non-routine Maintenance can
be tracked. Here we are recording
some pest control that has been
performed on an exhibit. The
checkbox “Apply to All
Occupants” means that this
information will go into the record
of any animals that were
occupying the exhibit at that time.
Especially for pest control, this is
important to have in an animal
record should any medical issues
occur after treatment.
You can search for Maintenance performed
using many filters. In the grid below we
have searched for all our pest management
and see that the Children’s Zoo was treated
twice, and Exhibit 1 has had one treatment.
The list can be exported and manipulated
as desired. You can use the hyperlinks to
the Enclosure record to view additional
details recorded there.
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The Life Support module allows for recording your components, attaching them to a
Life Support and then attaching the Life Support to one or more Enclosures. Above
we have a Life Support that is attached to two tanks. The Life Support is comprised
of a filter, an air pump and a heater. You can search for your Life Supports by many
filters as shown on the right.
When adding a new aquatic
enclosure there is a field for Water
Type (ie source of the water). This
is a searchable field, so you can
find all enclosures with a specific
water supply. The results grid can
be exported for printing or
emailing.
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Back to Topics Covered
Safety/Security SS-24 Are all animal exhibits and holding areas sufficiently secured to prevent unintentional
animal egress?
• Enclosure module > More Details tab > Barriers or Dimensions grid
Another part of the Enclosure record is the ability to record information about the
enclosures such as the barriers and their dimensions. The top is the Barrier grid and
we can see that the front viewing is a solid glass barrier, the back wall is weldmesh,
and there is also a dry moat in the viewing area. The bottom grid displays the
Dimensions. The front viewing glass is 10 feet high by 20 feet long. The moat is 25
feet wide.
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SS-25a Have there been any major animal escapes in the last five years?
• Start > Reports > Transaction Report > Advanced > Disposition > Missing > Escaped
Back to Topics Covered
The On-Site Visit The AZA Inspector’s Handbook helps to guide the Visiting Team through their inspection by
You can also record details on
the barriers such as the strength
of the weldmesh or glass. This
can help when there are specific
enclosure requirements for
housing the species as it makes it
easy to check that you are meeting
these requirements.
Using the Transaction Report, you
can get a list of all animals that
Escaped during the desired time
frame. The results can be exported,
and any minor escapes deleted.
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noting things to look for and additional information that may not be answered in the application.
ZIMS has many features that can help you during the inspection process. The Visiting
Committee Report will document their findings. The following topics are often of top concern
for the inspectors.
Is Conservation a key element to the institution’s mission?
The Animal Charts available in ZIMS (Start > Animals > Charts) provide a graphical display of
your commitment to managing species at risk. In particular, the Taxonomy/IUCN Risk %, IUCN
Red List Status and CITES charts are valuable.
Is the institution actively participating in AZA animal programs?
It is easy to show them the number of Studbooks supported by your institution by going to Start >
Studbooks > Studbook Keeper List > search by your institution. If you are using the
Management Plan grid in your animal records you can also easily find any animals in managed
programs.
Does the water quality methods and controls program appear to be adequate for the aquatic
exhibits? Do they have an adequate water quality monitoring program that outlines parameters
tested, allowable tolerances and frequency of testing?
Show them your Measurement Range Templates and email notifications for any water quality
measurements that are outside of your desired ranges. Pull up some Aquarist Daily Logs to show
enclosures and measurements taken.
Is Animal Welfare a top priority at the institution? Does the institution have a process for
assessing animal welfare and wellness?
If you are using the Care and Welfare module this is easy to show. Pull up a few animal charts to
show them how you are tracking and assessing your collection’s welfare.
Are the animal records duplicated and safely stored?
One commonly found area of major concern noted by the inspectors was lack of duplication and
safe storage of records. Institutions using ZIMS are not required to duplicate their animal data
and it is safely stored. This greatly reduces the number of documents that do need to be
duplicated.
Is enrichment being provided on a regular basis? Is the provided enrichment documented and
regularly assessed?
Pull up some records on a few animals and show them the Enrichment grid entries.
Are the medical records adequate and up to date?
Make sure they see how you are using the Medical module in ZIMS.
Does the institution utilize controlled drugs and are they managed appropriately?
Pull up the pharmacy inventory and do a search for Regulated Drugs.